REBELS AND LOVERS
(fourth book in the Dock Five Universe)
Release Date: March 2010

OUT OF OPTIONS…Devin Guthrie can’t forget Captain Makaiden Griggs even though it’s been two years since she was in his family’s employ. A Guthrie does not fall in love with a mere shuttle pilot. Going against his wealthy family’s wishes isn’t an option—not with the Empire in political upheaval, much of it caused by Devin’s renegade older brother, Admiral Philip Guthrie. The Guthries must solidify their standing—financially, politically and socially—or risk losing it all. But when the Guthrie heir—Devin’s nineteen-year old nephew— goes missing, Devin’s loyalty to his family’s values is put to the test. And suddenly the unthinkable becomes the only option available: Devin must break the rules and risk allying himself with the one woman he could never forget—and was forbidden to love.

A Deadly Game of Hide and Seek! “Sinclair's outstanding space saga continues. In addition to focusing on the characters' romantic lives, she builds a world that's growing more complicated. Her gift for fast-paced adventure and rich character depiction make her books exhilarating thrill rides. Not to be missed!” —Jill M. Smith, Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine

“TOP PICK! This is another sizzling action-filled story in the series. Ms. Sinclair's adroitness at world-building and facility at developing a multiplicity of believable and likeable characters make this tale another of her enthralling romantic sci-fi entries.” –ELF for NightOwl Reviews

Rebels and Lovers

“Seven more days. That’s all I can give you, Captain Griggs.” The thin-faced man in the cheap, shiny brown three-piece suit grabbed the railing of the Void Rider’s rampway and stared up at her with narrowed eyes. “You either pay what you owe or we’ll settle it the hard way.”

Kaidee Griggs leaned on that same railing and stared down at Horatio Frinks with equally narrowed eyes, ignoring the tall, wide-shouldered Takan bodyguard hulking threateningly behind. “What about the two thousand I gave you last week?”

“That leaves thirteen—”

“Which you will get, Frinks, when I get paid. You know that. We discussed that. It’s not my fault the Empire’s dumped more slagging restrictions on cross-border trade. I’m not the only free-trader caught up in this.”

“But this ain’t no trader debt, and it’s over a year old now. I don’t like it. Orvis don’t like it.”

The Taka nodded slowly. He wasn’t Orvis,but, like Frinks, was hired muscle.

“And I don’t like it, but damn it, I can’t pay you if I can’t haul goods. You have an issue? Go to slagging Aldan Prime and talk to His High-Whatever Tage. I would have paid that debt off four months ago if it wasn’t for him.” Well, maybe not paid off, but she’d be a lot less in debt if restrictions, fines, taxes, and penalties hadn’t been slathered on to free-trader operations by His High Asshole Darius Tage. For the betterment of the Empire. Of course. And at the command of Emperor Prewitt III. Of course.

It was always the emperor who commanded these things. Tage was just his obedient servant.

In a crigblarg’s eyes.

Sheldon Blaine’s claim to the throne was starting to sound more and more attractive—the terrorist tactics of his Farosian Justice Wardens notwithstanding. At least Blaine—who even from prison still claimed to be the real heir to the royal Prewitt line—would want traders going to and from Tos Faros and other points in Dafir sector.

Now it was damned near an impossible task to get across the B-C border into Calth. And even traffic in the commercial space lanes in Baris was subject to “unannounced inspections.” As if she had Philip Guthrie tucked in her cargo hold?

She knew Philip Guthrie—though she doubted many on Dock Five would believe her if she said so. And if she did have the man on her ship, she’d not waste his talents by stuffing him in a cargo hold. He’d flown right seat with her and Kiler a few times. The man was impressive. She could almost forgive him for being a Guthrie.

She shoved herself back from the railing and headed for the Rider’s airlock, fear warring with frustration. Seven days. She couldn’t get to Calth and back in seven days even if the Empire didn’t have a destroyer sitting out there with Dock Five in its sights, inspecting and impeding traffic.

The best she could do in seven days was to get off Dock Five the minute the restrictions were lifted and never return. Let Orvis hunt her down. That could buy her a month, maybe three.

But it would also put her in a serious financial bind. One of the few intelligent things Kiler had ever done was to prepay the Rider’s docking bay fees on a two-year contract and sign the ship on as part of the CalRis Free-Trader Collective. The CFTC, its contacts, and its contracts—for all the annoying rules and restrictions—were the only things keeping her and her ship alive. Leaving Dock Five meant leaving all that behind and starting from scratch again.

Just like they did when they left Guthrie Global.

Another thing to thank Kiler for.

That and a twenty-five thousand credit gambling debt—with the Rider as collateral.

She’d always worried that it would be her heritage, her family history, that would derail her life. How damnably odd that the handsome, respectable—well, respectable back then—pilot she had married turned out to be the source of all her troubles.

And that the very family history she was so afraid of was the main reason he was interested in her. So much for true love or forever after.

She closed the airlock behind her and leaned on the bulkhead’s hard edge, her back against the wall in more ways than the obvious.